From a layman:
I've been reading Walther's sermons found in, "The Word Of His Grace" copyright 1978. In the sermon "Righteous Through Faith", page 4 it states, "And behold, on the third day after His death God the Father Himself awoke Him from the dead, confirming the word of victory of the dying Redeemer and calling to all sinners, "Yes, it is fulfilled!" And so he declared the whole world righteous. "I am reconciled! You are redeemed! Your debt is paid; and the righteousness that avails before Me is won for you."
Also, in the sermon " ", page 232 it states, "Are you saying that God has already in Christ absolved all men, including all the ungodly, all slaves of iniquity, all unbelievers, all mockers, all slanderers? Who could believe that? ---And yet it is so, dear friends"
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GJ - Yes, Walther is the main source for Synodical Conference UOJ. The language they use is plagiarized from his sermons. They run back to Walther's Easter Absolution sermon whenever their UOJ is threatened. They like the man who turned Roman Catholic, too - Ed Preuss.
The Methodists use Wesley's sermons as their doctrinal textbook. That is why Methodists say, "We have no theology."
True, Lutherans used an edited version of Luther's sermons for the Large Catechism. But they also dealt with the doctrinal issues for years before issuing and signing the Formula of Concord and the Book of Concord, 1580. Lutherans do not use all of Luther's works as their confessions. We have plenty of Luther in the Book of Concord, but no one thinks every phrase of Luther must be preserved as official doctrine. Luther was opposed to that kind of treatment.
Did someone issue a set of Walther's sermons and make that the new Book of Concord? The current synodical leaders are being dishonest and slippery in assigning to Walther a primacy in doctrine above that of the Scriptures and the Confessions. If I remember correctly, Walther promoted the European Lutherans. He edited a compend for his classes. In that regard he was not a Waltherian but a Hyper-Euro-Lutheran.
Walther had many fine qualities, but he was messed up about justification by faith. He was converted through Pietism and never lost that foundation, as he confessed. UOJ comes from Pietism, not from the Bible, not from the Book of Concord.
ELCA is Pietistic in its roots. ELCA is also Universalistic, only more obviously and honestly so.
WELS had an evangelism campaign. The motto was, "I am saved, just like you." Did anyone object? The apostates have won.
